The installation of wall-to-wall carpeting often involves stretching the carpet to obtain a smooth, flat appearance. This generally entails installing barber tack strips around the perimeter of the area to be covered with carpet. The carpet is then rolled out in the room, usually over some padding then rough cut to shape, and seamed. One side of the carpet is attached to the barbed tack strip along one side of a room and then stretched to the opposite side of the room where the carpet is attached to the barbed tack strip on that side. This process removes any wrinkles or creases in the carpeting.
During the above-described method of installing carpets, the carpet installer is required to use various tools for stretching the carpet. The most commonly used tool is the carpet knee kicker, which is typically constructed from an elongated rod having a head with a plurality of downwardly extending carpet-gripping members or prongs at one end, and at the other end a kneepad. The elongated rod typically includes an offset bend adjacent to the head to provide clearance for the kneepad so that the head will be flat on the floor for maximum engagement with the carpet surface. The elongated rod portion of the device will be parallel with the floor to transmit to the head the maximum force of a blow to the kneepad by the carpet installer.
Carpet installers using this device must get down on their hands and knees, use the carpet gripping head of the kicker to engage the carpet close to the edge to be stretched, and then kick the knee pad using a knee, thus stretching the carpet. The edge of the carpet is then pressed down onto the tack strip, which secures the stretched carpet in place. Any final trimming of the edge is accomplished and the edge is neatly tucked between the tack strip and the wall to give a finished appearance. Carpet kickers are extremely popular because they are inexpensive devices and because they are particularly useful for stretching carpet in small areas, such as hallways and stairways. However, a carpet kicker has limited power for stretching carpet in larger areas. Additionally the effectiveness of the knee kicker also depends upon the size and weight of the installer. Over a long period, the repeated bumping of the knee by installers can cause serious damage to the knees of individuals involved in the installation of carpet.
Wide varieties of other tools have been devised for stretching carpet in large rooms. These tools usually consist of an enlarged head unit with a plurality of downwardly extending carpet-gripping members or prongs connected to a pressure rod consisting of one or more extension members. Average large rooms take between five and eight of these separate extension rods that range in length from three to four feet long. The extended pressure rod has a pivotal end that presses against the base of the opposite wall that the carpet is being stretched toward. Carpet installers are required to carry all of their tools to the location that the carpet is being installed, which can be very cumbersome and may take several trips back to the transportation vehicle. This patent endeavors to reduce the number and weight of tools along with improving the capability of the tools used to install carpet.
A wide variety of single purpose tools for stretching carpet along with many different kinds of knee kickers are known in the art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,076,213 of Buford L. Payson discloses an extendible locking tube assembly of outer and inner telescoping tubes. The outer tube internally carries a locking collar having an obliquely inclined central aperture that slidably receives an elongated locking member. An end of the elongated member is removably attached to the inboard end of the inner tube. The locking collar has a radial lug that projects exteriorly from the outer tube and bears against an abutment carried on the outside of the outer tube. The locking collar is biased into a position preventing retraction of the elongated member and its dependent inner tube. A lever, attached to the collar, projects exteriorly from the outer tube on the side opposite the abutment, thereby permitting a single-handed release of the locking mechanism. When the assembly is employed, as in its preferred application with a carpet stretcher, one can release the locking mechanism without shifting one's position from that taken for operation of the carpet stretcher.
This patent describes a good example of the single purpose tools that make use of an assembly of many outer and inner telescoping tubes connected to the gripper head but cannot easily be used as a knee kicker.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,119,338 of Clarito R. Agcaoili describes a carpet stretcher or kicker operable by engagement with the knee of an operator, the carpet stretcher or handle having a shank, a head with carpet-engaging pins adjustably mounted therein positioned at one end of the shank, and a kicking plate having a padded cover at the other end, the shank being formed of telescoping shank members which may be rotated ninety degrees with respect to each other for disengagement, or moved longitudinally with respect to each other to obtain the desired shank length, and then rotated ninety degrees with respect to the original relative position to lock the members axially with respect to each other.
This patent describes a stretcher or kicker tool that has been designed specifically as a single purpose knee kicker device with a unique length adjustment, but doesn't have the capabilities to be extended to push against an opposite wall.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,538,846 of Jerry M. Alexander tells of a plurality or kit of brace assemblies for a carpet stretcher of the type having a carpet gripping head supported by a plurality of elongated telescoping tubular sections that are adjustable to vary the effective length of the head from a fixed support. Three interchangeable brace assemblies are provided, each of which may be substituted by the installer for the standard wall engaging foot on the end telescopic section. Each of the braces is adapted to fit around a fixed discrete vertical support commonly found in areas where carpets are installed such as support posts. All the brace assemblies include a U-shaped retainer and a tubular base. The largest of these brace assemblies includes a U-shaped arcuate retainer that is adapted to fit around and grasp one of the cylindrical support posts in the carpet installation area. This retainer has a non-pivotal connection to a base that snaps in the telescopic tubular sections of the stretcher. A second brace assembly is provided in the kit having a smaller U-shaped retainer with a rectangular shaped interior surface adapted to grasp a rectangular support in the carpet area. This brace has a vertical pivotal connection between its retainer and base. A third brace assembly is provided in the kit having an even smaller U-shaped retainer with a vertical pivotal interconnection to its base.
This patent describes a carpet stretcher with a variety of interchangeable brace units with telescoping sections connected between U-shaped retainers and the head member, but does not have the capability of being converted into a knee kicker to be used in more confined areas.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,129,696 of Patrick S. Underwood describes an adjustable carpet stretcher that has an outer tubular member, a first inner tubular member within the outer tubular member and a telescoping second inner tubular member within the outer tubular member. There is a locking member and an outer tubular member stabilizer bushing. There is a securing bushing releasingly attached to the second inner tubular member by a second inner tubular member fastener. A mounting bushing and a spacer member are on the second inner tubular member. A mounting plate is releasingly secured to the securing bushing. A carpet skid is releasingly attached to the mounting bushing. There is a kneepad and a kneepad-retaining member. A carpet gripping head has a base plate and a primary tooth plate, adjustably and removably attached to the base plate, which has a plurality of primary teeth thereon. A primary tooth plate adjustment member, adjustably attached to the base plate and to the primary tooth plate, adjusts a depth to which the primary teeth of the primary tooth plate may penetrate the carpet. At least one secondary tooth plate, removably attached to the base plate, has a plurality of secondary teeth thereon. There may be a tooth plate stabilizer bushing to reduce movement of the primary tooth plate. There is a light device to illuminate an area near the gripping head and a power source for the light device.
This patent describes a carpet stretching tool, but is primarily a knee kicker with a unique cushioned kneepad, gripping head unit and a light device to illuminate an area near the gripping head, but cannot be adapted to work as a stretcher that will extend to put pressure at the base of an opposite wall.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,288,057 of Ewald E. Listau discloses a carpet stretching device using a power stretching adapter attached to a standard carpet kicker. The stretching adapter is formed from a frame having an anchor plate attached to the front of the frame for anchoring the device between the wall and tack strip adjacent to the carpet edge to be stretched. A handle is provided which is pivotally attached along its lower portion to the back of the frame. A clamp is located at the bottom of the handle for attaching the handle to a standard carpet kicker adjacent to the head of the kicker, so that the head will be positioned between the anchor plate and the clamp. The device functions by placing the handle upright, placing the anchor between the wall and tack strip, engaging the carpet pile with the carpet kicker head, and pivoting the top of the handle down towards the knee pad of the carpet kicker, forcing the kicker head towards the anchor, thus stretching the carpet. A kicker assembly is also pro-vided for forcing the stretched carpet into engagement with the tack strip.
This patent discloses a device that is a power stretching adapter attached to a standard carpet kicker, but it does not supply the attachments to make it a stretcher or have the attachments required to extend the device putting pressure on the opposite wall. This device relies on the pressure of the installer's knee against the kneepad of the device.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,669,174 B 1 of Christopher L. Vita describes a knee-less kicking tool for stretching a carpet. A base rests on the carpet. A head is attached to the base and engages and stretches the carpet when an apparatus for propelling the head is activated. The apparatus includes a pair of rods that extend across the base and a ram. The ram has a body that slides on the pair of rods. When the ram is slid forwardly on the pair of rods and impacts upon the base, the head is caused to move forward and stretch the carpet. The ram further has a handle that extends from the body thereof and is grabbed by the hand of a user and used to slide the ram forwardly, and a weight that extends upwardly from the body thereof and which increases the impact of the ram on the base when the ram is slid forwardly on the pair of rods.
This patent describes a knee-less kicking tool for stretching a carpet that uses weights to hold the device in position, and sliding a weighted ram instead of using the knee to stretch the carpet. This device cannot be used as a stretcher to push against an opposite wall, along with the fact that it greatly increases the weight that the carpet installers have to carry to the jobsite.
None of the foregoing prior art teaches or suggests the particular unique features of the carpet installation combination tool, clarifying the need for further improvements in the devices used to install carpeting.
In this respect, before explaining at least one embodiment of the invention in detail it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and to the arrangement of the components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced and carried out in various ways. It is also to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting.